This is to illustrate the announcement posted this same date about a possible online version of this course being open to auditors for Winter 2011.

Syllabus, ITP PRES2073, Basic Parapsychology

Professor Tart

Copyright Charles T. Tart 2008

Winter 2009, Tuesday evenings, Kiva, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

Note this is 2009 in person syllabus, NOT what will be used for a Winter 2011 online course, but things will be similar….

Prerequisites: None

Every culture and every person within a culture is a “philosopher,” a “scientist,” a “theorist,” in that she has a worldview, a set of (somewhat integrated) beliefs as to what the world is like. The world includes the physical world, their own selves, other people, and “otherworldly” aspects of reality. Your personal and cultural worldview automatically and habitually affects/constructs your thinking (and perception) in important ways, including what kinds of values and goals make “sense.” Some actions or ideas are not even seriously thought about, e.g., as they are “obviously” impossible. And if “impossible’ events happen, considerable conflict may be experienced.

Transpersonal psychology was created partially as a reaction to the dominant worldview of our times, scientistic materialism. [Note the differences between science and scientism, the words “scientific” and “scientistic”] This view, that affects all of us in many ways, even when we think we don’t believe it or think we are in rebellion to it, sees human consciousness as nothing but the resultant of electrical and chemical interactions within the brain and nervous system. So consciousness is not only exclusively controlled by the brain and physical environment, it perishes absolutely when the brain dies. From the dominant view of scientistic materialism, most of the ideas and experiences of concern to transpersonal psychologists are pre-scientific nonsense, primitive beliefs based on fear of injury and death, outmoded and nonsensical beliefs about “souls” and “spirits” and “energy” and similar things that any “rational” person dismisses.

One of the reasons for creating transpersonal psychology was the psychological observation that a completely materialistic worldview is not very satisfying to the human “spirit:” indeed many seem to sicken when they are caught within the materialistic world view. But in being transpersonal psychologists, are we desperately hanging on to superstition and nonsense just to make ourselves feel better? Good feelings first, to hell with truth? A modern, (transpersonal) “opiate of the masses,” as Marx characterized religion? Rejecting the truths of modern science out of fear they will undermine a comfortable belief system? These are important questions each of us must personally answer, as well as deal with rationally and scientifically as transpersonally oriented professionals.

The central contentions of this course will be that, [a] using the best kind of rigorous science (scientific parapsychology, which must be distinguished from the vast mass of sloppy beliefs popularly put under the “parapsychology” and “New Age” labels), a total reduction of all human functioning to nothing but material brain function is factually wrong; that [b] no genuinely scientific theory that claims to be comprehensive can ignore facts it can’t account for; and [c] high quality scientific data gives support to a scientific view of consciousness that points in the direction of “spiritual” or transpersonal realities. But, and this is a very important “but,” simply believing either in a materialistic or transpersonal worldview because of habit or feelings is common, unscientific, contrary to many spiritual aspirations, and is a major disservice to the world and to our profession. Much of what is labeled by such terms as “psychic,” or “spiritual” is indeed factually nonsensical and wrong, but there are vital realities mixed in. Learning how to discriminate and how to wisely use what we know is essential. No ITP graduate should be a fuzzy philosopher who doesn’t think clearly and rigorously, a sloppy scientist who doesn’t actually test her beliefs, or a slipshod theorist about reality who doesn’t recognize and deal with difficulties and contradictions. And “believer” is not a positive term among the influential people in our society.

Two primary texts will be used, as well as possible occasional assigned readings, viz. an unpublished ms. of Charles Tart’s next book (title: The End of Materialism)[1] and Dean Radin’s The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena[2]. Both authors are leading parapsychologists. The course will consist of various micro-lectures by the instructor, extensive reading in the two textbooks, and class discussions based on the readings and on students’ knowledge and experience. Because of the large amount of material we need to survey to get an adequate conceptual and scientific overview, there will be little, if any, experiential work in class. The reading and paper assignments are given below. Further, multiple readings of student papers in a collegial way will increase the intensity of the learning experience.

Paper Assignments: A 2 to 4-page, double-spaced, typed paper dealing with (a) the reading materials for the day, and/or (b) the previous class discussion is due at each class, beginning with the second class. Threecopies of each paper should be brought to class, one for the instructor and two others to be distributed to fellow students. The instructor will return one paper with comments. Thus two of your fellow students will write comments on your papers each week and you will write comments on two of your fellow students’ papers. They will return them to you at the next class. This brings a broader range of knowledge to bear on the ideas expressed in each paper, as well as providing training for your future role as an instructor.

The instructor will respect your personal experiences in these papers, but may provide critical intellectual feedback on content and style as part of his educational responsibility.

As my eyes are not what they used to be, please use 12 point type and double space

Note that one of the reasons for these papers is to give you practice in professional level writing. Thus, parallel to the ITP rule for the paper that shows competence for advancing to the PhD level, you should carefully proof your papers for grammar and spelling or other composition errors before turning them in. If a paper has more than 5 such errors, the first time it will be turned back with instructions to rewrite it. After that such papers will be marked unacceptable.

The last paper should be a 4-6 page “What have I learned in this course” type paper.

Late turning in of assignments is strongly discouraged – I may require extra papers from you if you do this. Similarly, ITP policy is to strongly discourage Incomplete grades, so don’t be late!

Auditing Policy: Auditors are not allowed unless they plan to come to all classes. People who just drop in occasionally are disruptive to the group spirit of the class. Also, auditors, if any, and Significant Others are not permitted to write papers for the instructor or other students to read and comment on.

Overload Contingency: A graduate course should really not have more than 8-10 students in it to allow the instructor to give adequate individual attention to each student’s work. But it’s hard to turn away students who want and need to know this material when there are so few opportunities to get decent information on parapsychology. So if more than 10 students enroll, the paper assignments may be modified so you will still turn in papers each week and get comments from fellow students, but the instructor will not always comment on them.

Attendance: Our class meetings are sequenced for optimal learning, and the discussions in class are an important part of that learning and integration process, so please attend all classes. Life does interfere at times, though, so if you should miss a class, please study and reflect on the assigned readings and keep up with the regular writing assignments. You can miss one class in a quarter with no problem as long as your regular writing assignments are completed in a timely way, but if you miss more than one class, you should write an extra paper in addition to the one due for that missed class, commenting on the readings assigned for that class, for each class you miss. Please indicate at the top of this paper that it’s a makeup for (which class?) a particular class you missed. These papers must be turned in before the end of the quarter. If more than two classes are missed and not satisfactorily made up, ITP policy is that you cannot receive credit for the class.

Makeup Classes: Note that the instructor may occasionally miss a class to present papers at professional conferences. When this happens, either a makeup class will be given at an arranged time, probably on a Tuesday evening after the regular class, or a taped lecture will be given. Such makeup classes, if known in advance, are noted in the syllabus.

Office Hours: Professor Tart’s office hours will be Tuesdays, probably about 2:30 to 4:00 pm. You can just drop by, but priority will be given to those who’ve signed up for a 30 minute block. You can sign up to reserve a half hour slot at the signup sheet on his office door. Phone consultation is usually available on Wednesdays during the day at 510 526-2591, between roughly 9-11:30 in the mornings, 1:30-4:00 in the afternoon. Please try to call just during these hours if you can so his writing schedule won’t be interrupted. Email can be sent to him at charlestart@sbcglobal.net, and email is generally the most reliable way to contact him outside of class and office hours. E-

Goals, Structure and Objectives of the Course:The objectives of this course are, (1) on the academic level, to familiarize the student with the nature of basic parapsychological phenomena and their implications as a foundation for transpersonal psychology, (2) on the professional level, to sensitize the student to recognize the occurrence of parapsychological phenomena in everyday life and their implications for affecting peoples’ views of reality, and, (3) on the personal level, to foster sensitivity to parapsychological events and so be able to discern more appropriate and mindful styles of reaction to them. The goals and learning outcomes of this course are that each student should be able to intelligently orally discuss and write about the above three objectives.

Student Disabilities: If you need accommodations for a disability, please speak to the instructor before the course or by the end of the first class.

In a school with a recognition that learning and growth involves emotional, bodily and spiritual, as well as intellectual, creative and community processes, there is sometimes confusion over what is expected and appropriate in a particular course. This note is to clarify this matter for my course on Basic Parapsychology, in the hope of maximizing learning and minimizing misunderstandings and inappropriate expectations.

Basic Parapsychology is a course that is almost exclusively intellectual in terms of readings and classroom lecture and discussion, although most students bring their own personal previous experiences of psychic events to bear on their understanding of the material. Students are not required to experience any parapsychological phenomena as part of the course work, and any suggestions about what might be interesting to try in this regard should be evaluated by you in terms of your personal needs, understanding, and boundaries.

The course work contains some exciting ideas for personal growth, but the course is not intended to be or represented as a form of therapy, spiritual growth, or emotional process work, although I certainly hope that the intellectual content of the course may sometimes contribute to your personal growth. I state these limitations here because, among other things, I am a scientist and educator, not a psychotherapist, psychic, or spiritual teacher.

I do not intend to denigrate nor disregard individual experiential, emotional or spiritual knowledge, resources, growth challenges or problems. I respect and honor your personal process! Indeed when your individual knowledge of this sort is relevant to expanding or clarifying the conceptual or experiential material we discuss, it is welcome and enriching, both in class discussions and papers. I would also suggest that, like me, you regard what you think you already know about these matters as your best guess at this time, but be open to thinking about options and learning more.

I also ask you to consider and honor the following points, adapted from standards of personal responsibility that were used by Professor Jill Mellick in her classes at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. While they are phrased for courses deliberately involving fairly powerful emotional and growth work, they are relevant in the context of all ITP courses.

ª Be aware of the context in which you are experiencing your own growth, both personal and intellectual. This is a class; while I hope it will be beneficial to you personally as well as academically, the class is not individual or group therapy.

ª Please set clear protective boundaries for yourself. Some of the topics or exercises in this class may evoke personal issues with which you need/want to deal. You are welcome to clarify these issues in your papers or class discussion if they are relevant to the class, and you might reach new understandings through doing so. But remember that the class is not an appropriate context in which to actually work through your personal issues. Such issues are best worked through with a qualified psychotherapist or spiritual teacher.

ª Please respect your own material and the limitations of your peers. In class discussions and experiential exercises you are often including your personal history, implicitly if not explicitly. In the case of conflictual, emotional, unresolved material, respect yourself by sharing only material which is reasonably well resolved or which you are comfortable not having resolved. A statement that an area under discussion is very difficult for you may be a useful contribution, but don’t bring it up if it’s too difficult for you to handle in the intellectual context of the class.

ª Please respect your own privacy and the overall purpose of the class. Share only material you are willing to have become part of current and later class discussions. Note too that in spite of the following point, privacy of your discussion contributions cannot be guaranteed.

ª Please respect your peers’ privacy. If a classmate shares important personal material, please do not talk about it to anyone outside the class unless (a) it is intellectually or compassionately useful to do so AND (b) you can disguise the identity of the person sufficiently so that they cannot be recognized. If in doubt about your ability to adequately disguise the identity of the person from others who may know them, don’t mention the material. To put it another way, avoid gossip or story telling that may hurt someone else. Of course if you think a classmate is at serious risk and is not receiving professional help outside the classroom (such as being in therapy), do notify appropriate administrative authorities who may be able to help.

ª Please recognize and respect your own and others’ capacities. If a certain part of the discussion or an experiential exercise looks as if it will be too difficult for you emotionally, please inform me (no explanation is needed) that you don’t want to take part in that part of the discussion or participate in that exercise. If much of the class causes this kind of problem, of course, we should discuss whether you should be in the course.

This note is meant to create an atmosphere conducive to learning, not the final word on human life, so please take it in that spirit. Class discussion of these considerations is appropriate.

Writing Comments on Classmates’ Papers

After class one night, someone asked me what kind of comments she should write on classmates’ papers.

This was an interesting question, for in more than 10 years of having students do this, nobody ever asked me anything like this, and it never occurred to me to say anything…. ;-)

I suppose that’s partly because I was educated in an old style in which you learned how to be a teacher by, as it were, osmosis. Nobody ever instructed us on how to teach, even in graduate school, but implicitly assumed that we’d all been exposed to good, middling and poor teachers in our educational career and we had hopefully picked up the qualities of the good teachers by osmosis or imitation or something…. In retrospect, I see that system doesn’t always work, although there’s a lot to be said for it….

So here’s some first-level comments on how to write comments.

Imagine yourself in the role of instructor, and these are your students. You’re likely to be in that role officially in a few years, so this is good practice.

What do you want to do as an instructor?

You want your students to learn the material, and learn it as well as possible.

A most basic level of learning is simply remembering what was said in class and what was in the readings, but by graduate school level we can generally assume people have mastered that skill. We want a deeper level of learning, where they can think about the material in both a critical and an expansive way. That’s what I look for when I read a paper: is the writer thinking about, grappling with some aspects of the material? Are they understanding it better as a result? Or if they are puzzled by some of the material, are they puzzled in a more sophisticated manner as a result of grappling with it because they have a more specific understanding of what does not make sense to them?

Part of helping students learn is encouraging them when they are doing so. Thus when I see a student is seriously working with the material I usually write some sort of encouraging comment(s) to that effect. If I see real interest in some aspect of the material, I may give some directions to sources the student could get more info from. Sometimes I may just say some version of “Right on!” but, say, writing something briefly about my own interest in that particular topic, a kind of teacher-student bonding.

Another part of helping students is giving them feedback about standards. We’re learning to be professionals. If a paper has been printed out with a worn ribbon, e.g., and is hard to read, that’s discourteous and unprofessional and I will make comments about that. Same deal with spelling (an “SP” beside misspelled words) and grammatical errors(“a “GR”), or typos that indicate the paper was not proofed after being written. I don’t like to tell someone that they are being sloppy, vague, unprofessional, etc., but it’s part of my job as an instructor. You should be the same way. You’re not being genuinely friendly to a classmate if you let them get by with low quality, unprofessional behavior, it’s going to hurt their future career.

One other point to stress. Your papers should not be “book reports,” on the order of “…the chapter said A, B, C, D… and the lecture covered M, N, O,… etc.” I already know you can write book reports. Nor should they be just emotional reactions, “I was offended by X, I didn’t like Y….” I want you to work with one or two points from readings and lectures and experiential practices and show me you’re thinking about them, working with them, relating them to other things you know, exploring *why* you have an emotional reaction to them, etc.

OK, write away! Hope this helps.

Info on Consciousness, Parapsychology, Transpersonal:

If you go to my primary web page, www.paradigm-sys.com/cttart/ , you can sign up to receive occasional (as few as once a month, as often as several times a week) studentnotices email notices from me about interesting developments on consciousness, parapsychology, transpersonal psychology, and the like, conferences about them, etc. This is open to anyone who thinks I may recommend interesting stuff, not just ITP students, even though it’s named Studentnotices, so feel free to pass this info on to anyone you think might be interested.

Style Guidelines – Institute of Transpersonal Psychology

These guidelines and style rules are based on the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Fifth Edition). They are modified for ITP student class papers. Not all of the format subtleties and exceptions are included here, and there may be some special cases for the Dissertation Qualifying Paper and dissertation work. ITP specifies several variations from full APA style. These are indicated below by “ITP.” This handout uses most of the basic style (but not doublespacing, which is required for papers.).

Paper

Basic Elements

Paper size. Use standard 8’/2 x 1 I white paper.

Margins. Set margins at least I inch wide on the top, bottom, and sides. Most word processors will set 1 inch margins by default, others may have wider side margins. These are okay also.

One sided. Papers should normally be printed single-sided. If you wish to print double-sided, please check with the professor.

Fonts

Font. For the text, always use a font with a serif, such as Times Roman, Palatino, Courier, or Bookman. A serif is the little flag or foot at the tops and bottoms of letters, and the letters usually have lines with varying thickness. Here is a serif font: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Here is a sans serif font: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”Exception: Use a sans serif font for the text within figures, graphs, and charts.

Font size. Use a 12 point font (type face) for all text, quotes, tables, and figure titles.

Special fonts. Use italics for book titles, journal titles, journal volume numbers, and for sub headings. See the APA manual for which headings, or use this page as a guide.

Numbering. Number the pages in the upper right corner.

Organization of Text

Title page. For final class papers, term papers, DQ papers, research reports, and so forth, use a title page with the title, your name, date, the course name, and a running head. For informal short papers (2-5 pp.) and reaction papers, you can put the title and the other information at the top of the first page (ITP variation).

Line spacing. Double space all the text, except for these ITP modifications:

1. Quotations of 40 words or more must be single spaced and indented. The citation goes after the period. [For an example, see p. 2.]

2. References must be single spaced, with a line space between each reference. [See p. 2.]

Indent paragraphs. Indent the first line of each paragraph five spaces or one tab.

Footnotes. Do not use footnotes. You can use end notes if you wish.

Items in series. For a series of items in the text, use (a), (b), and (c), without periods, and with a comma after each item, such as, “He taught (a) breathwork, (b) psychodrama, and (c) meditation.” If If you list items in paragraph form down the page, number the paragraphs, with periods after the numbers, but no parentheses, and begin the items with capital letters. See example above under “Line Spacing.”.

General Good Advice

Headings. Use headings and subheadings in the text, where possible, to identify sub-topics and make for easier reading. Usually one to three levels of heading are sufficient, as with this handout. See the APA Manual pp. 113-115.

Spelling. Spell check the text with your word processor, beginning with the first draft. For the final draft, we recommend you have another person read it for typos, style, and wording errors not caught by the spell checker.

Holding it all together. Staples are usually preferred over binders.

Citations and References

Citation form. When you refer in the paper to an article, book, or other source, you should cite it by listing the last name of the author and the date of publication. This guides the reader to the item in the references. Also, as Miss Perfect Format (Format, 2004) says, “When you quote a source, put the page number after the quote marks” (p. 2). Following is a sample quote with several examples of correct citation forms and placements.

Reference format. Include a list of references–sources you actually cite–and check the references and citations against each other. Don’t have a bibliography, which is a list of all the books you found relevant. The reference list is placed at the end of the paper, arranged alphabetically by last name of author. Use a hanging indent format. Below are examples for common kinds of sources (some fake) and the formatting style. See the APA manual for further examples and details.

Braud, W. (1993). On the use of living target systems in distant mental influence research. In L. Coly & J. D. S. McMahon (Eds.), Psi research methodology: A re-examination (pp. 149-188). New York: Parapsychology Foundation. [Example of a chapter in an edited book.]

Brand, William, & Anderson, Rosemarie. (1998). Transpersonal research methods for the social sciences: Honoring human experience. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [Example of a book with two authors. Either first names or initials of authors can be used at ITP.]

Tart, C. T. (1969). Transpersonal potentialities of deep hypnosis. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2(l), 27-40. [Example of a journal article. One or two initials can be used at ITP.]

(from the ITP Faculty Handbook)…

EVALUATION OF WRITING

Papers and Other Writings

Graduate students are expected to write correctly and well. It is a misuse of the faculty’s time to expect them to read the paper through the errors or even correct extensive errors. If outside help is needed, it is the student’s responsibility to secure that help (e.g., a tutor) and pay any related expenses. The Dean of Student Services has a referral list of tutors. All faculty-directed writings having academic content (for example, miniproposals, proposals, dissertation drafts, theses, second year final papers, formal final papers for courses, doctoral qualifying papers) must be in ITP style and carefully edited. This policy may not apply to certain self-reflection papers (determined by the instructor) and online communications such as Caucus posts or electronic mail.

The Five-Error Rule

At the discretion of the reading faculty members:

1. If a paper contains extensive errors of any type, faculty may return the paper without a review being completed and do so within a deadline specified to the class or student (normally within 2 weeks of reception of the paper).

2. Error types tend to be repeated and therefore increase the total number of errors in a document. Even a total of 5 to 10 error types—grammatical, spelling, typographical, or departures from APA guidelines—found within the document is considered unacceptable. It is likely that the paper will be returned under these circumstances.

3. If English is not a student’s first language, the faculty should advise the student to get the needed tutoring support, being aware that all expenses are paid by the student.

Writing Check

When it comes to the attention of an instructor that a student needs to improve his/her writing skills, the instructor should remark on these needed areas of improvement on the Form 103B/203B/403B, as well as discuss the issue directly with the student. Be sure to include specific writing problems on the feedback form. If you feel that a student needs immediate attention, please speak with the student first, and then let the Program Chair and Dean of Students/ Director of Student Services know of your concerns.

The new, revised version of the ITP Writing & Style Handbook can be found on the Resources & Links page of the ITP library website (http://www.itplibrary.org) or on Docutek (http://itp.docutek.com).

The ITP Writing & Style Handbook provides general guidelines for scholarly writing, as well as specific information about the writing style and format conventions used at ITP. We recommend that students consult this Handbook often—both before and during their various writing exercises and assignments. We also recommend that faculty members become as familiar as possible with the content of this Handbook, so that they might better be able to foster ITP format writing habits in all courses. Printed copies will be available upon request.

In addition to the ITP Writing & Style Handbook we recommend that each student utilize the current edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2001). The ITP Writing Style is based on the APA publication manual and departs from APA style and formatting in only five ways, as outlined in the ITP Writing & Style Handbook. Additional information regarding references, citations, and the like may be found in this text or on the APA website (http://www.apastyle.org/).

(from the ITP Writing & Style Handbook, p. 17…

ITP Departures from APA Style and Formatting

There are three primary differences between APA style and proper style and formatting in scholarly papers at ITP.

1. Block quotes. At ITP, block quotes should be single spaced. This saves paper and space in long documents.

2. Running Header: At ITP, there should not be a running header. A running header is used in APA style to help the reader identify an article. Since student papers are submitted as separate documents, this is not required.

3. References: At ITP, references should be single-spaced within themselves but double-spaced between references. This saves space and paper in long documents.

4. Tables and figures (along with their captions) may be interspersed in the text, at appropriate places, rather than placed at the end of the document.

5. Feminist citation and reference methods are allowed at ITP. Please see page 26 for more information.

[1] A paper copy of The End of Materialism will be purchasable from Jocelyn Coulon.